Planning a trip to Nassau? Make sure to save room in your luggage for a bottle of wine!
Recent months welcomed the opening of the very first winery in the Caribbean, Bahama Barrels at Graycliff Hotel. Not only is this new winery Instagram gold—it’s painted in a rainbow array of colors and even has swings, a conch shack and picture-perfect palm trees dotting the property—it’s also a fun way to taste a selection of new wines and find your perfect fit.
Caribbean islands aren’t ideal for grape-growing, so the on-site winemaker has selected flavorful vintages from wine hot spots around the world and brought them to Nassau to the delight of wine lovers with tropical tastes. And some might consider this new winery holy ground: Bahama Barrels is housed in an old Sisters of Charity convent that dates back to 1937.
Hands-On Wine Classes at Bahama Barrels
Visitors can do more than snap photos and sip wine (as if those weren’t enough). Wineaux wannabes can book a blending class and become winemakers for a day: you’ll get a chance to sample, swill, pour, cork and name your very own bottle of one-of-a-kind wine.
At the wine blending class at Bahama Barrels, you’ll sit down to a handful of different wines—both red and white—sourced from all over the globe, then try your hand at chemistry by finding just the right proportion of each wine to blend into an entirely new concoction that pleases the palate. Whether you go heavy on the pinot noir or stick closer to the chardonnay side of the spectrum, the combination of wines is entirely up to you. You can keep it monocolor, but what millennial wouldn’t want to create their very own rosé?
The Perfect Souvenir
Once the perfect balance of wines has been achieved, visitors will give the combination a name and then pour their unique blend into a wine bottle of their choosing. All bottles are recycled from the third largest private wine collection in the world (which just happens to belong to the owner of Graycliff Hotel next door). Next comes the corking and naming process, at which point the new wine will receive a freshly printed label and be ready to take home to show off to friends!
Head to Bahama Barrels for a souvenir no one can duplicate—and one you’ll be glad to take off the shelf when the time comes.
Bahama Barrels is located on West Hill Street, just a few blocks inland from Nassau’s bustling Bay Street. It opened late 2017.
